


Separation Anxiety

by JadeHo



Series: Finding the Avengers [4]
Category: Stephanie Plum - Janet Evanovich, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gift Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 08:20:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14304642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeHo/pseuds/JadeHo
Summary: The twins experience some separation anxiety when Steph and Steve leave the Tower for a day.





	Separation Anxiety

_**Steph's POV** _

"They're fine," Steve told me, rubbing the tension out of my shoulders as we rode down the elevator.

Or at least he was giving it his best effort.

"They've watched the twins before," Steve reminded me. "Someone takes them frequently for us."

"I know," I told him. "But at least one if not both of us is usually still in The Tower. This is different."

My name is Stephanie Rogers, and at some point I'd gone from being a single woman who had an off-and-on relationship with one man, a series of emotion-light one night stands with another— mostly during off phases, and had a vague feeling like she might like a baby one day but couldn't actually see it happening to being happily married with twins.

I'd never be able to be a perfect Berg wife who stayed home with the kids all day and cooked perfect meals that were ready precisely at 6 o'clock every day.

But still, being a mom had unlocked something, well, maternal in me.

I suppose I had become an Avenger, which was also a big change, but honestly that seemed less far-fetched to me given the insanity of my life.

And I was having a difficult time leaving my kiddos with anyone other than Steve when I was going to be more than a few floors away.

It had been a team effort coaxing and cajoling me into leaving with Steve on an actual date— not just dinner a few floors away followed by sex and uninterrupted SLEEP.

They'd taken turns spending long stretches with one twin or the other, making a point to show me that they were capable of feeding, diapering, clothing, entertaining, and even bathing the twins when they inevitably made huge messes.

"Don't you trust us?" Bucky had asked me wide eyed one afternoon.

And dammit that had been the end of the conversation because I did trust them.

I shook myself out of La La Land where I'd been remembering all this and reminding me how good they all were with the babies and realized Steve was still talking.

"We have our coms, our phones, and we'll be reachable through our helmets when we are on the motorcycle. If there's a serious issue, they'll tell us," Steve said. "Otherwise they can take care of anything that comes up! It's going to be at worst six against two."

I snorted out a laugh and said, "the two are a handful though."

Steve was holding my hand as we walked side by side, and when we reached the bike he tugged me around to face him.

"They really are, aren't they?" Steve said on a laugh. "Not that I'm surprised given their mom!"

"Me?!" I cackled at him. "Bucky has told me so many stories about all the trouble you'd get into way back when."

Steve rolled his eyes at the mention of his age, but his eyes still sparkled good naturedly as he conceded, "i suppose they haven't blown anything up… yet…"

We stared at each other for a beat, mentally crossing fingers that Steve hadn't just doomed us. After a couple seconds with no explosion rocking the building or alarms going off, I let out a relieved breath and I was pretty sure Steve did too.

Getting myself to leave the apartment had been difficult, but once we hit the road, and I was snuggled up behind Steve on his motorcycle, I realized it also felt GOOD.

By the time we were out on the open highway speeding toward The Shore, where we planned to get lunch and a walk before heading home, Steve and I were joking back and forth over the coms in our helmets.

Five hours later, we were on our way home and I really was relaxed. I plastered my front into Steve's back and just kind of melted into him as we rode along. I closed my eyes, not sleeping but enjoying the experience, easily moving as he moved.

When we got back into the tower, Tony's voice came over the coms saying, "hey you crazy kids. Did you have a good time? Wanna keep it going? I can reserve the suite you spent your wedding night at for you two! You can come back in the morning."

Steve and I eyed each other warily, and I asked, "Tony what's wrong?"

We got into the elevator, and I thought it was moving suspiciously slowly, as Tony answered, "what? No! Everything is great! Perfect! It went smoothly, and the twins are asleep now."

"Well…" Steve definitely sounded as suspicious as me as he said, "we'd like to see them and be home with them tonight. Maybe we'll take you up on the offer of an overnight away from them another time."

By that point we'd arrived at our floor and stepped out.

At first glance, everything looked okay. But it smelled like fresh paint.

And was that a new end table? Come to think of it, I wasn't absolutely certain, but I didn't think that was the same rug in our entry way as when we left.

"What on Earth happened here?" Steve asked, hands his hips and disappointment etched with on his face.

Tony's fire extinguishing robot came wheeling out from the other room with a puff of foam.

Darcy rushed in behind it holding out the tablet we used as a baby monitor hurriedly saying, "see, look! Both sleeping happily! Safe and sound."

Bucky filtered out behind her, with what looked like burns on his arms and chest that were almost healed but no shirt on.

"And…" Steve prompted expectantly.

"We may have all underestimated the combined effects of those lightning powers they got from Steph and separation anxiety," Bucky said cautiously.

"But!" Darcy clapped her hands like she had something exciting to share with us. "Your apartment's fire suppression system works GREAT!"

"Also, Natasha is surprisingly good at calming them down," Tony told us once he seemed to determine that we weren't going to flip out on them.

Steve let out a sigh and asked, "is everyone okay?"

Darcy gave us a thumbs up and said, "Bucky was the only injury because he picked them both up when the screaming started. He didn't even drop them when they electrocuted him or anything!"

I felt my jaw drop open, but Bucky just waved off my concern saying gruffly, "they got over it after a few minutes, otherwise we would have called you to come back." Then he smirked, "plus it was fun watching them run away from Sam and be faster than him."

"I was just letting them win!" Sam yelled out from the kitchen. "Now come on, everyone. Team dinner to celebrate a relatively successful day!"

**Author's Note:**

> Gift fic wishing a very very happy birthday to Sarra/Silver :) Thanks for your continual help and encouragement! You Rock!


End file.
